1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to apparatus for the automatic waxing of vehicles, and particularly to an apparatus for waxing automobiles, trucks, and vans in commercial "car wash" operations.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
A preliminary patentability search in class 427, subclasses 327 and 416, produced the following patents: Rendemonti, U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,857, issued May 3, 1977; Takeuchi, U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,246, issued Nov. 11, 1986; and Takeuchi, U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,946, issued Nov. 1, 1988. While each of the above patents disclose various apparatus for polishing and waxing automobiles, none disclose or suggest the present invention.
More specifically, none of the above patents disclose or suggest an automatic vehicle waxer, for applying a hand waxing effect to a vehicle, comprising: a wax application station, comprising a wax application head means which operates in a circular pressure-sensitive basis for applying wax to the vehicle, and a first positioning means for positioning the wax application head means adjacent the surface of the vehicle; a drying station, comprising a blower for drying the wax applied by the wax application head means; a polishing station, comprising a polishing head means which operates in a circular pressure-sensitive basis for polishing the wax dried by the blowing station, and a second positioning means for positioning the polishing head means adjacent the surface of the vehicle; a first conveyor means for moving the vehicle through the wax application station to a first pick-up point; a second conveyor means for moving the vehicle from the first pick-up point, through the drying station to a second pick-up point; and a third conveyor means for moving the vehicle from the second pick-up point through the polishing station.
Rendemonti, U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,857, describes an apparatus and method for pressure cleaning and waxing automobiles in which microcrystalline beads of dry, water soluble, carnauba wax are blasted against the surfaces of the atuomobiles with sufficient pressure to cause fricitional buffing and polishing of the surfaces, without any mechanical buffing or polishing. The Rendemonti patent does not achieve a hand waxing effect, since it lacks the wax application head means and polishing head means of the present invention which operate in a circular pressure-sensitive basis; in fact, Rendemonti teaches against the use of mechanical buffing or polishing, while the present invention uses such mechanical buffing or polishing to achieve the aforementioned hand waxing effect.
Takeuchi, U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,246describes a method of polishing a vehicle using a traveling frame which straddles a vehicle to be polished, using rotating brushes to polish a foamy wax of anionic active agent which has been sprayed upon the vehicle, followed by application of an aqueous wax of cationic active agent, which is also polished, and then dried. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,246 patent uses brushes, unlike the current invention, which uses a wax application head and polishing head, and does not achieve the hand waxed effect attributable to the circular pressure-sensitive motion of the present invention's wax application and polishing heads. Additionally, since the vehicle in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,246 patent is stationary, with a traveling waxing frame, the throughput of the waxing apparatus is reduced as contrasted with the present invention, which is more suited to volume waxing of a large number of vehicles due to the "assembly-line" approach of multiple conveyor means and separate wax application, drying, and polishing stations.
Takeuchi, U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,946, is similar to the earlier Takeuchi patent mentioned above, also having a traveling frame and rotary polishing brushes, and also uses a treatment of foamy anionic surfactant followed by a treatment of a cationic surfactant containing aqueous wax. The present invention has no such polishing brushes, no such traveling frame, and uses no such anionic and cationic surfactants. Because both Takeuchi patents use brushes to polish wax which has been sprayed upon the vehicle, they achieve a "brush waxed" effect, as opposed to the "hand waxed" effect achieved by the present invention.